Volvo has confirmed that it has entered a factory team into the V8 Supercars for 2014. Volvo Polestar Racing will enter one of the world’s biggest touring car categories with a pair of V8-powered S60s, joining Nissan, Mercedes, Holden and Ford (which is rumoured as potentially departing the series).
Where will the S60 get its V8?
The V8 Supercar rules stipulate racers run a mandatory 5.0-litre V8. None of the existing makers have one their range, so an upsizing of the Yamaha-sourced V8 that powers the XC90 may be on the cards. This is what Mercedes and Nissan have done to field new entries this year, shrinking the V8 in Mercedes’ case and upsizing a version of the Nissan GT-R’s V6 with more cylinders and capacity in the latter’s. Also mandatory is rear-wheel drive, so the Polestar S60 will be like none you’ve driven on the street…
Who will be running the team?
Volvo fans will be familiar with Polestar, the Gothenburg-based tuning arm that’s been responsible for a number of hot road-going Volvos as well as Volvo’s Swedish Touring Car Championship and World Touring Car Championship campaigns. Click here for CAR’s drive of the mad 500bhp S60 Polestar road car. Polestar will team up with Garry Rogers Motorsport, a Bathurst-winning outfit that’s been served by the likes of the current V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, who’s dominated the sport for the last five-odd seasons.
So a Volvo could win Bathurst?
That’s right – and it’s done it before. Not only did it win the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1986, Volvo won the 1998 Bathurst race with the S40 saloon when it was a Super Touring event, a feat that the Williams Renault team couldn’t manage when it flew its team out the year before…